COLLEAGUES, friends and family raised their glasses to one of Britain’s longest serving head brewers who stepped down from his job yesterday.

As well as retiring, Don Bracher, 62, the head brewer at Arkell’s, celebrated two decades of work.

He passed over the mantle of head brewer to Alex Arkell, who has spent the last two years with the brewery learning from the best.

Don said: “I won’t miss getting up at the crack of dawn to do an early morning brewing, but I will miss all the people – there is a huge sense of camaraderie across the brewery and our landlords which is infectious.”

Don left university in 1972 with a degree in zoology. But when he started job hunting, he changed tack and wrote to every national brewer across the country, as well as to the RAF.

Mann Crossman Brewery, which closed some years ago but operated out of Whitechapel Road, in London, offered him an interview – and so did the RAF.

The brewery interview came first so he cancelled his RAF interview and sealed his fate forever.

“I learned everything and every aspect of brewing,” said Don. “In those days it was a 24-hour brewery brewing 20,000 barrels a week.”

Don decided to return to university – this time to do an MSc in malting and brewing science at Birmingham.

On graduation, he was employed by Whitbread Brewery in Chiswell Street, London, and was soon seconded to Morlands Brewery, in Abingdon, for two years.

He ended up staying there for more than 14 years before Arkell’s came calling when their head brewer, Don Kenchington, was looking to retire.

“I’d never visited Arkell’s at that point but when I did I realised what a great opportunity had fallen into my lap and I moved here in 1992,” said Don.

“I’ve always been a traditional mash tun brewer, but while respecting the traditional techniques, I’ve adopted the best of the new brewing techniques to produce consistently good beer.

“Arkell’s has supported my innovations and we’ve now got a range of beers of which we are all very proud indeed.”

As consultant brewer, Don still plans to be involved in Arkell’s future but is very happy to see a member of the family take up the challenge.

However, he also has career ambitions of his own.

“I rather fancy training to be a butcher,” he said.

“Perhaps it’s a way of finally making use of my zoology degree!”

But he says his wife Margaret has other ideas. With two children and young grandchildren, he said she already had a list of chores drawn up for him.

Brewery chairman James Arkell paid tribute to Don’s enormous contribution in evolving Arkell’s into a 21-century brewery.

“In 1992 we didn’t think that a new ‘Don’ could ever replace our first ‘Don’ Kenchington as head brewer,” he said.

“I am absolutely delighted that we were wrong and over the last 20 years Don has driven the development of beer at Arkell’s Brewery like no one else could have done.”

Meanwhile, Alex, 26, is looking forward to taking over and being possibly one of the youngest head brewers in the country.

He said: “I’m excited to be taking over. I’m assistant brewer at the moment, so there will be more responsibilities.

“Don is certainly a daunting man to follow, especially with all the experience and knowledge that he has, but I am very much looking forward to it.”